8:00 a.m. on Capitol Breakfast. And normally at this time on a Friday, we go big. But this isn’t any old Friday. Today is the release day of the most anticipated album of the year. It’s called The Life of a Showgirl. And I can’t believe I’m actually saying this. The lady who created it is joining the chat this morning. It’s Taylor Swift.
[Applause] ; How are things doing? Good. ; How are you? ; Oh, never better. ; Yeah. ; Never better. never been so excited about an album coming out. And I think it’s part of it’s part part of it is maybe the fact that usually when you put out an album, you made it like a year before.
So your life can change a lot between when you make it and when you put it out. But with this album, it’s exactly where I’m at in my life. You know, I’m exactly in the same spot as I was when I made this record. So it feels very like it feels very accurate to my uh just my my life experience right now, which feels kind of cool.
That’s so satisfying cuz you can listen to it and you know that you’re still in that zone. ; Yes. Exactly. Exactly. And I’m so proud of it. I I made this record with Max Martin and Shellback who I hadn’t worked with in maybe seven or eight years. And it was really exciting to make it because it felt like we had all kind of gone out into the world and learned new skills and honed our powers and then come back together with new information and you know hopefully hopefully better, bigger, stronger.
; Oh, it’s like the Avengers Assemble. We are literally getting straight into this track, aren’t we? Now, ; so many Swifties listening. Do you want to just say hello to all of them? ; Hi, guys. ; I miss you all. I used to, you know, I used to get to see your your beautiful faces every single, you know, three-day ; kind of period of time when we were doing the eras tour.
So, it’s like I I miss getting to see everybody. ; Well, they are listening. So, I think we go straight in with the first song on the album. Would you like to introduce it to us, please, Taylor Swift? This is the first single off of this album and the first song on the album. Um, it is a song I love so much. I hope you do, too.
It’s called The Fate of Oilia. ; It’s Capital Breakfast. That song is called The Fate of Oilia. And you know, it was uh made by this lady that is with us right now. It’s Taylor Swift. ; Yeah. ; Oh my god, they just played it. ; That is so surreal listening to that with you and knowing it’s going out live and all the audience, the whole of the UK hearing that for the first time.
; Oh, thank you for playing it. It’s crazy to me to have like to have to keep a secret for a very long time when you you make an album. I’m big on secrecy. I’m big on like surprising the fans and rolling it out a specific way. So I, you know, it’s weird to be making an album you’re so proud of, you’re so obsessed with it, but you can’t talk about it to really anybody.
And it’s this little secret you have and then all of a sudden it’s out in the world and you guys are playing it for the entirety of the UK. I’m so excited. ; It’s so cool. I mean just a lyric that stood out for me was that if you had never called I might have lingered in purgatory. ; It’s a great line. What does that mean? So it means basically this it’s all kind of a play on Oilia from Hamlet who was driven mad by love and um and and because of that you know she ends up like being driven mad and drowning and the play on it is like you saved me from
that fate right you rescued me like meeting someone and finding someone who took you away from that way that your life could have gone. And so it’s all very dramatic obviously uh because it’s me. Uh but you know using kind of sometimes with with songwriting I’ll use a specific language based on either the story I’m telling the characters I’m singing about or the kind of the subject matter at hand.
So when you’re dealing with Shakespeare, it’s kind of fun to, you know, say things like, you know, I might have lingered in purgatory or um, you know, using kind of like you wrap around me like a chain, a crown, a vine, but then mixing the language with kind of more modern vernacular like, you know, uh, like pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes, like that’s much more like modern day.
And then the bridge is me kind of like riffing off of riffing off of like different uh plays on on not lyrics, lines from Hamlet, actually. ; Amazing. We’re just going to pause there. We’re just going to sort out your microphone for a second. Apparently, it slipped. Sorry, ; it wasn’t You didn’t make it tall enough, guys.
; There’s that. ; Happy days. ; There we go. There you go. Um, ; and am I right in thinking that most of this album was written on the European leg of your ears tour, which ; You are right. You’re correct. ; You are a machine. How do you manage to write an album? Do this tour that everyone’s talking about? It’s Are any of the tracks inspired by us Brits or the UK maybe? ; I mean, you guys are like I was always based here, so I would, you know, when I wasn’t going to Sweden, I would come to London. And, you know, I love London. I
love it here. I love England. I love like just getting to travel outside of where I was from to the places where most of my favorite ro writers wrote my favorite poems and things like that. And also it’s just like I think you guys are the coolest. I love your sense of humor. ; You know that, you know, you guys are cool.
; Um, ; we have a very Mickey taking sense of humor. We take the what we say the mick out of each other. ; Yeah. Like the sarcasm. It’s just it’s all good. And that’s why so many of my friends and best friends or whatever are are British. So, you know, surround myself with good people. And I was going from playing shows on this tour to Sweden.
Like so that was that I know it sounds like it was exhausting but it’s a different type of um feeling you get like when you’re on stage three and a half hour show it’s physically exhausting. ; I needed to like stimulate my creative mind and my and my brain and and make something that would ; kind of fuel the fatigue I was feeling at that point in the tour because at that point we’ve been on tour for like two years.
; I see. ; So ; So most people go home, get on the sofa and watch Friends to chill out ; which I do all the time. ; Oh good. I do all I do that too. I work. ; Okay. You are human. ; Yeah. Of course. Of course. It’s just like when you’re inspired to write like for me that’s like the most fun possible.
Um but I also just like I just lay around so much. I lay around. I watch so much TV. ; Doing rotting. We call it and dotting. Right. Look, all the Swifties are getting in touch. We need to play another track. ; We do. ; Can we play Opalite track three from the album? ; I would love it. ; Would you? ; Please do. ; Let’s get it on.
This is Opalite on Capital Breakfast. Opalite playing this Friday morning on Capital Breakfast. It’s Jordan, Chris, and Sean. If you’ve just put us on, then not much happening on the show today, apart from Yeah, you know, Taylor Swift is here. ; Unbelievable. ; Are we right in saying that that is your fiance’s favorite track, Travis Loves? ; I would I would say that you’re right about that, too.
You’ve just been absolutely accurate on everything that you’ve assumed today. Um, that that is I think that’s his favorite. He loves that one. That one was like I kind of well I have like favorite words, favorite phrases, things that I’ll put in like an endless file of lyrics that I’m just constantly going to like go and cherrypick from when I’m writing.
And I had written down the word opalite because I learned that it’s actually a man-made opal. Like opal can be man-made just like diamonds. And so uh Travis’s birthstone is an opal. So it’s like that that I’ve always fixated on that. I’ve always loved that stone and I thought it was a kind of a cool metaphor that like it’s a man-made opal and happiness can also be man-made too.
; Yes. ; So that’s kind of what the song is about is that the kind of juxtaposition of those two. ; Oh, there’s already always so many layers with you, Taylor. I’m always so impressed. ; Thanks. ; It’s so cool. Um, also we need to say congratulations on the engagement. We haven’t seen you since that happened and it would be very rude of us cuz you are the queen of gifts for us not to give you a gift. A so sweet of you present.
Oh, and it’s per it just it’s perfect. Look at the look at the matchy matchiness of all this. ; Um, and it says TS12 on it, which is ; We’ve tried to get the orange the right shade. ; It’s so perfect. Okay. All right. All right. This is a great start. What we’re, if you’re listening, we’re I’m opening up a jewelry box that is mint colored and it has a cat in it.
; It’s a little opalite cat. ; It’s a perfect gift. ; Oh, we’re so chuffed. We just wanted to get something that we knew you could ; perfect present. ; I’m so pleased. ; So cute. ; Sean’s nailed it. ; So cute. No, this is perfect. And I’ll always remember this from getting to like talk to you guys and come over here and and celebrate the album release with you guys.
; Every time I look at this, I’m going to put it in a very prominent place. ; I love that. ; Don’t forget mine. ; Also, Jordan’s been very keen to impress you. We both were so I love the fact. ; No. No. ; Did you bake? I Yeah, sure. Um, I love the fact ; you pick me up some bread from the bakery. ; No. So, right.
I love the fact that you make sourdough for your friends for special occasions and usually you give them cinnamon and raisins. I’ve got a friend of mine who makes sourdough to put in a little surprise for you. ; Oh my god, we did all the puns on the stickers. ; Oh my god. Elizabeth Taylor is really good. Actually, doantic. Fantastic.
; Oh my god, the fate of Doilia is so good. Oh my god, that is so sweet. ; See, Taylor thinks I’m funny. ; Jordan, tell her what you what flavor you made. ; So, we made a Greg sausage roll flavor. ; God, this is fantastic. ; Look at this. Thank you. ; This is great. This is going to be my lunch. ; Love that. Love it. We nailed it.
; A Greg sausage roll. And I We’re all big Swifties, right? But you went up in my estimation at the era tour when you organized a Greg’s van to be backstage for all your crew and workers cuz obviously we love Gregs in the UK. So we put a little surprise in the bake for you there. ; What did you put? What did ; No, in the middle of it full sausage roll.
; Is a sausage roll. ; I I clocked that the first time you said ; sorry. ; That’s why that’s why I said it’s lunch. ; Just trying to get more praise and love. ; Dessert. This is so sweet. Thank you. So these are perfect gifts. ; I’m not even joking. Thank you and congratulations. Genuinely, we’re so happy for you and all the Swifties are.
; Thank you so much. ; Before you go, you’re going to be asked all the same questions over the next few weeks. Um, is there one question? ; I’m actually not doing that many interviews and so you can do whatever you want. ; I mean, don’t go crazy or whatever, but like I’m I’m not doing a lot of interviews.
I will I won’t roll my eyes at you if you ask me a question that you think is predictable. ; You can roll your question. You can roll your eyes at me. But the one question I wanted to ask you is, what is the one question you would like to be asked on this tour? Is there something you’ve not been asked yet? ; Don’t make me do your job for you.
; She’s got you. She’s got you. ; I’m not going to make you do the singing for me. ; Is there anything that you ; No, I think you’re doing a great job. I think you should just keep do just keep asking what you what you are curious about. ; Okay. All right. Um, well, I’ll tell you this before you got to go that this is my favorite song on the album and I’m going to play it right now.
It’s wish list. ; Oh, that means the world to me because that might be my favorite, too. ; Get away. ; It might be. ; Oh my god. ; Yeah. ; That makes me so happy. Thank you for um Thank you for saying that. ; Well, also, can we just say that I’ve never ever been more excited about an album like knowing that every single track is a banger.
Like, we were mind-b blown genuinely. ; Thank you. ; Yeah. Let’s get it on. This is wish list from the album Life of a Showgirl. It’s out now. Go stream it. Help break Taylor’s own record, but give it up mostly importantly for our guest this morning, Taylor Swift. ; Thanks, guys. We love you. ; Thank you.
Inside ‘The Life of a Showgirl’: Taylor Swift Reveals Engagement Secrets and Travis Kelce’s Favorite Song
Article:
The world of pop culture stood still this morning as Taylor Swift joined Capital Breakfast for an exclusive, wide-ranging interview to celebrate the release of her highly anticipated twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. In a conversation that felt more like a catch-up between old friends than a formal press junket, Swift opened up about her creative process, her deep-seated love for British culture, and the intimate role her fiancé, Travis Kelce, played in the inspiration behind her new music.
A Mirror to the Present
Unlike many of her previous releases, which often serve as a retrospective look at a past version of her life, Swift noted that The Life of a Showgirl is a precise reflection of her current reality. “Usually, when you put out an album, you made it like a year before,” she explained. “But with this album, it’s exactly where I’m at in my life. I’m exactly in the same spot as I was when I made this record.”
This sense of immediacy brings a unique vulnerability to the tracks, which were largely penned during the grueling European leg of the record-breaking Eras Tour. Despite the physical exhaustion of performing three-and-a-half-hour shows, Swift described the songwriting process as a necessary mental escape. “I needed to stimulate my creative mind to fuel the fatigue I was feeling,” she admitted, proving once again that her work ethic is as legendary as her lyricism.
Shakespearean Drama and “The Fate of Ophelia”
The album’s opening track and lead single, “The Fate of Ophelia,” sets a dramatic tone that Swift fans have come to adore. Drawing inspiration from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the song explores themes of being “rescued” from a downward spiral. Swift elaborated on the poignant lyric: ‘If you had never called, I might have lingered in purgatory.’
“It’s a play on Ophelia, who was driven mad by love and eventually drowned,” Swift shared. “The play on it is like, ‘You saved me from that fate. You rescued me.’ It’s very dramatic, obviously, because it’s me.” The song masterfully blends high-literature language with modern vernacular, referencing “allegiance to your vibes” and “your team,” a nod to her life in the public eye and her supportive inner circle.
The Travis Kelce Connection: “Opalite”
Perhaps the most heartwarming moment of the interview came when the discussion turned to track three, “Opalite.” Swift confirmed the rumors that this is her fiancé Travis Kelce’s favorite song on the album. The title itself is a deeply personal metaphor tied to Kelce’s birthstone, the opal.
“I learned that opalite is actually a man-made opal,” Swift said. “Travis’s birthstone is an opal, and I’ve always loved that stone. I thought it was a cool metaphor—that happiness can also be man-made.” The song explores the idea that joy isn’t just something that happens to you, but something you can actively build and choose with the right person by your side.
The hosts congratulated Swift on her engagement, a milestone that has been celebrated by “Swifties” globally. To mark the occasion, the team presented her with a special gift: a mint-colored jewelry box containing a small cat carved from opalite. Swift was visibly touched, noting the “matchy-matchiness” of the gift with the album’s themes and promising to keep it in a prominent place.
A Love Letter to London and “The Mick”
Swift’s affinity for the United Kingdom has been well-documented throughout her career, but she took a moment to double down on her love for the country and its people. Having spent a significant amount of time based in London during her tour, she praised the British sense of humor and the “sarcastic” nature of her friends in the UK.
“I love it here. I love England. I love getting to travel to the places where my favorite poets wrote,” she said. The interview even touched on a fan-favorite moment from the tour: Swift organizing a Greggs van—a staple of British high-street bakeries—backstage for her entire crew. In a hilarious exchange, the hosts presented her with a custom sourdough loaf flavored like a Greggs sausage roll, complete with puns like “The Fate of Doilia” and “Fantastic.” Swift laughed along, calling it her “perfect lunch.”
“Wish List” and the Future
As the interview drew to a close, the conversation shifted to “Wish List,” a track that both Swift and the hosts agreed might be the standout of the entire record. “That might be my favorite, too,” Swift revealed, her face lighting up at the praise. The song is already being hailed as a “banger” by critics and fans alike, solidionalizing the album’s place as a career-defining work.
Despite the whirlwind of the tour and the album release, Swift remains grounded. She joked about her love for “rotting”—a slang term for lying around and watching television—and mentioned that she still spends plenty of time on the sofa watching Friends to decompress. “I am human, of course,” she laughed, countering the “machine” narrative often applied to her prolific career.
The Life of a Showgirl is now available on all streaming platforms, and if the early reception is any indication, Taylor Swift is once again on track to break her own records. But beyond the charts and the metrics, this album represents a woman at the peak of her powers, celebrating a man-made happiness that is clearly meant to last.
……….;;;;;;;
Absolutely love this one, right? (audience applauds) Whew! This is sort of a, it’s not a short speech. So just, I don’t want this to slip and break ’cause it’s very important to me. – I got it. – Thank you so much. (audience laughs) She’s so supportive, we all need someone like that. (laughs) I’m Taylor, good evening.
I wanna first thank Billboard from the bottom of my heart for this honor, for– Whoa, this is going great so far. (audience laughs) Excellent, okay. I wanna say thank you so much to Billboard for giving me this honor, for naming me as their Woman of the Decade. So what does it mean to be the woman of this decade? Well, it means I’ve seen a lot.
When this decade began I was 20 years old and I had put out my self-titled debut album when I was 16, and then the album that would become my breakthrough album, which was called Fearless. And I saw that there was a world of music and experience beyond country music that I was really curious about. I saw pop stations send my songs Love Story and You Belong With Me to number one for the first time.
And I saw that as a female in this industry, some people will always have slight reservations about you. Whether you deserve to be there, whether your male producer or co-writer is the reason for your success, or whether it was a savvy record label. It wasn’t. (audience laughs) I saw that people love to explain away a woman’s success in the music industry, and I saw something in me change due to this realization.
This was the decade when I became a mirror for my detractors. Whatever they decided I couldn’t do is exactly what I did. – [Audience Member] Woo! – Oh, I’ll take it. (applauding) Thanks! Whatever they criticized about me became material for musical satires or inspirational anthems, and the best lyrical examples I can think of are songs like Mean, Shake It Off, and Blank Space.
Basically if people had something to say about me, I usually said something back in my own way. And this reflect dictated more than just my lyrics. When Fearless did win Album of the Year at the Grammys and I did become the youngest solo artist to ever win the award, with that win came criticism and backlash in 2010 that I’d never experienced before as a young new artist.
All of a sudden people had doubts about my singing voice, was it strong enough, was I a little bit pitchy? All of a sudden they weren’t sure if I was the one writing the songs because sometimes in the past I had had co-writers in the room. At that time I couldn’t understand why this wave of harsh criticism had hit me so hard.
I believe a popular headline back then was, A Swift Backlash, which is clever, you gotta give it to ’em. (audience laughs) And now I realize that this is just what happens to a woman in music if she achieves success or power beyond people’s comfort level. I now have come to expect that with good news comes some sort of pushback.
But I didn’t know that then. So then I decided that I would be the only songwriter on my third album, Speak Now, and that I would tour constantly, work on my vocals every day, and perfect my stamina in a live show. I decided I would be what they said I couldn’t be. I didn’t know then that soon enough people would decide on something else I wasn’t quite doing right, and then the circle would keep going on and on and rolling along and I would keep accommodating, over-correcting, in an effort to appease my critics.
They’re saying I’m dating too much in my 20s? Okay, I’ll stop, I’ll just be single. For years. (audience laughs) Now they’re saying my album Red is filled with too many breakup songs? Okay, okay, I’ll make one about moving to New York and deciding that really my life is more fun with just my friends. Oh, they’re saying my music is changing too much for me to stay in country music? All right.
Okay, here’s an entire genre shift and a pop album called 1989. – [Audience Member] Woo! – Ah! (applauding) You heard it? Sick! Now it’s that I’m showing you too many pictures of me with my friends, okay, I can stop doing that too. Now I’m actually a calculated manipulator rather than a smart businesswoman? Okay, I’ll disappear from public view for years.
Now I’m being cast a villain to you? Okay, here’s an album called Reputation and there are lots of snakes everywhere. In the last 10 years I have watched as women in this industry are criticized and measured up to each other and picked at for their bodies, their romantic lives, their fashion, or have you ever heard someone say about a male artist, I really like his songs but I don’t know what it is, there’s just something about him I don’t like? No! That criticism is reserved for us! But you know, I’ve learned that the difference
between those who can continue to create in that climate usually comes down to this. Who lets that scrutiny break them and who just keeps making art. I’ve watched as one of my favorite artists of this decade, Lana Del Rey, was ruthly criticized– Yes! (man mumbles) Yeah. (applauding) Thank you. We have similar tastes, I like it.
She was ruthlessly criticized in her early career and then slowly but surely she turned into, in my opinion, the most influential artist in pop. Her vocal stylings, her lyrics, her aesthetics, they’ve been echoed and repurposed in every corner of music, and this year her incredible album is nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys because she just kept making art.
And that example should inspire all of us, that the only way forward is forward motion. That we shouldn’t let obstacles like criticism slow down the creative forces that drive us. And I see that fire in the newer faces in our music industry whose work I absolutely love. I see it in Lizzo, Rosalia, Tayla Parx, Hayley Kiyoko, King Princess, Camila Cabello, Halsey, Megan Thee Stallion, Princess Nokia, Nina Nesbitt, Sigrid, Normani, H.E.R.
, Maggie Rogers, Becky G, Dua Lipa, Ella Mai, Billie Eilish. (audience cheers) And so many other amazing women who are making music right now. Female artists in music have dominated this decade in growth, streaming, record and ticket sales, and critical acclaim. So why are we doing so well? Because we have to grow fast. We have to work this hard, we have to prove that we deserve this, and we have to top our last achievements.
Women in music, onstage or behind the scenes, are not allowed to coast. We are held at a higher, sometimes impossible-feeling standard. And it seems that my fellow female artists have taken this challenge and they have accepted it. It seems like the pressure that could have crushed us made us into diamonds instead.
And what didn’t kill us actually did make us stronger. But we need to keep advocating for women in the recording studios, behind the mixing board, in A and R meetings, because rather than fighting to be taken seriously in their fields, these women are still struggling to even have a chance to be in the room.
(audience applauds) We now find ourselves fully immersed in a vast frontier that wasn’t around last decade, and that is the streaming world. In music, we’re always walking hand-in-hand with technology, and sometimes that is so awesome, like how now we’re able to just drop a song that we made yesterday. I’ve spoken out in the past about the future of revenue flow for creators and the songwriters and producers who are being left behind due to these rapid shifts and changes.
I still don’t think that record contracts or producers agreements have fully caught up, and I hope that in the next decade, we can keep searching for the right solution for producers, songwriters, and creators. Don’t you? (audience applauds) Lately there’s been a new shift that has affected me personally and that I feel is a potentially harmful force in our industry, and as your resident loud person, I feel the need to bring it up.
And that is the unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying up our music as if it is real estate. As if it’s an app or a shoe line. This just happened to me without my approval, consultation, or consent. After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog was sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I’m told was funded by the Soros Family, 23 Capital, and the Carlyle Group.
Yet to this day none of these investors have ever bothered to contact me or my team directly. To perform their due diligence on their investment. On their investment in me. To ask how I might feel about the new owner of my art. The music I wrote. The videos I created. Photos of me, my handwriting, my album designs.
And of course Scooter never contacted me or my team to discuss it prior to the sale or even when it was announced. I’m fairly certain he knew exactly how I would feel about it though. And let me just say that the definition of the toxic male privilege in our industry is people saying, but he’s always been nice to me, when I’m raising valid concerns about artists and their rights to own their music.
And of course he’s nice to you. If you’re in this room, you have something he needs. The fact is that private equity is what enabled this man to think, according to his own social media post, that he could buy me. But I’m obviously not going willingly. Yet the most amazing thing was to discover that it would be the women in our industry who would have my back and show me the most vocal support at one of the most difficult times, and I will never, ever forget it.
Like, ever. (cheers) (applauds) But to conclude, I will say that in 10 years I’ve seen forward steps in our industry, in our awareness, our inclusion, our ability to start calling out unfairness and misconduct. I’ve seen the advent of social media, the way it can boost the breakthrough of emerging artists and I’ve seen fans become more engaged and supportive than ever before.
I’ve leaned on that support and it has kept me in a place where no matter what, I always wanted to keep making music for them. I was up on a stage in New York City in 2014 accepting Billboard Woman of the Year and I was talking about the future of streaming. How we needed to make sure that the female artists, writers, and producers of the next generation were protected and compensated fairly.
This was before my record deal with Universal, last year, that would contractually guarantee that the artists on their roster be paid upon any sale of their Spotify shares unrecoupable. So thank you for that. (audience applauds) This speech I’m referring to was on my 25th birthday. I’m about to turn 30 tonight, woo! (cheers) (applauds) But my exact quote during the speech was, “I really just feel like we need to continue to try “to offer something to a younger generation of musicians, “because somewhere right now your future Woman of the Year
“is probably sitting in a piano lesson or in a girls’ choir “and today right now we need to take care of her.” I’ve since learned that at that exact moment, an 11-year-old girl in California really was taking piano lessons and really was in a girls’ choir. And this year she has been named Woman of the Year at the age of 17, her name is Billie.
(audience applauds) And those are the stories we need to think about every day as we do our jobs within this industry. The ones where people’s dreams come true and they get to create music and play it for people. The ones where fans feel a connection to music that makes their day easier, makes their night more fun, makes their love feel more sacred, or their heartache feel less isolating.
The ones where all of you in this room stand as an example for someone else in the next generation who loves the same thing that we love. Music. And no matter what else enters the conversation, we will always bring it back to music. And as for me, lately I’ve been focusing less on doing what they say I can’t do and more on doing whatever the hell I want.
(applauds) Thank you for a magnificent, happy, free, confused, sometimes lonely but mostly golden decade. I’m honored to be here tonight. I feel very lucky to be with you, thank you so much. (cheers) (applauds)
